{"id":116279,"date":"2026-01-01T14:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T14:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/116279\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T14:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T14:41:08","slug":"lincoln-riley-vowed-to-fix-the-trojans-defense-but-it-faltered-again-in-alamo-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/116279\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln Riley vowed to fix the Trojans’ defense, but it faltered again in Alamo Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SAN ANTONIO, Texas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Two years ago, a day after he decided to fire Alex Grinch as USC<\/a>\u2018s defensive coordinator, Lincoln Riley<\/a> made a promise to those concerned about the future of the Trojans\u2019 defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have complete belief, conviction. We will play great defense here,\u201d the coach said in November 2023. \u201cIt is going to happen. There\u2019s not a reason in the world why it can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years later, another defensive coordinator is out the door at USC. The day after Grinch\u2019s replacement, D\u2019Anton Lynn<\/a>, left to take the same job at Penn State, Riley stood in front of reporters, assuring everyone once again that soon enough, USC would be great on that side of the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe arrow,\u201d he said Tuesday, \u201cis pointing straight up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity for us to make a hire, to continue to make us better and to go from being a very good defense to being a great defense is the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet patience on that promise is wearing thin, especially given how the season had ended less than an hour before. USC blew a 10-point lead in the final five minutes against Texas Christian on Tuesday, a team playing without its star quarterback, before missing four tackles on a third-and-20 walk-off touchdown in overtime. The disastrous Alamo Bowl defeat<\/a> would serve as an especially sobering reminder that while USC made progress under Lynn, it\u2019s still a ways from heeding Riley\u2019s guarantee.<\/p>\n

And now, the defense will have to start again, with a new direction, a new scheme and a new coordinator, who will be Riley\u2019s third hire in five seasons at USC.<\/p>\n

In spite of all that, Riley was upbeat when asked about the unit\u2019s future Tuesday night. He felt \u201cfantastic,\u201d he said, about where USC\u2019s defense was headed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the personnel,\u201d Riley said of becoming a great defensive unit. \u201cWe\u2019re on an upward trend. And, you know, there\u2019s going to be a lot of interest in this job.\u2029I mean, this will be an extremely, extremely coveted job, and I can already tell by the nature of what my phone\u2019s been like the last couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several potential candidates with deep experience, as well as close ties to USC athletics officials, are expected to be available.<\/p>\n

Former Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, who worked at Washington under current USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen, was let go by the Longhorns earlier this month. Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden, meanwhile, worked closely with USC general manager Chad Bowden at Notre Dame and could be looking for a job as soon as next week.<\/p>\n

Both coached college defenses that ranked in the top four in the nation in points allowed during the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

USC appeared bound for a similar trajectory after Year 1 with Lynn. The Trojans allowed 10 fewer points per game, leaping from 121st in scoring defense under Grinch to 56th in his first season at USC. They got stingier on third down \u2014 106th nationally to 21st \u2014 and in the red zone \u2014 119th to 69th. Lynn was even named candidate for the Broyles Award, given to the nation\u2019s top assistant.<\/p>\n

In some respects, USC\u2019s defense continued to take steps forward in Year 2 under Lynn. It gave up fewer points and fewer yards per game. The pass rush improved, adding 10 sacks to its season total in 2025.<\/p>\n

But the personnel on defense was less proven this season \u2014 and more prone to mistakes. The secondary struggled through stretches. A thin group of linebackers was often overwhelmed. The defensive interior was manhandled for most of the season, and in each of their three regular-season losses, the Trojans were trampled on the ground.<\/p>\n

Last month, when asked about the group\u2019s inconsistency, Lynn said that USC\u2019s youth forced him to \u201cscale back\u201d significantly on defense. He actually wondered, in the wake of USC\u2019s loss to Oregon, if he shouldn\u2019t have scaled back the defense even more this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s different when you\u2019re teaching an 18-year-old versus teaching a guy who has been at two to three schools who has already played a bunch of college ball,\u201d Lynn said.<\/p>\n

Lynn, nonetheless, leaves USC in a better place than when he arrived. The nation\u2019s No. 1 recruiting class lands on campus next week, with plenty of highly ranked reinforcements on the way. Talented freshmen like defensive linemen Jahkeem Stewart and Floyd Boucard as well as defensive back Alex Graham are rising stars who should be ready to step into significant roles.<\/p>\n

But USC will have to replace three starters in the secondary, including Kamari Ramsey, its best linebacker [Eric Gentry] and its top run stopper on the defensive line [Anthony Lucas]. Whomever takes over as coordinator will be expected to take a significant step forward immediately, up against one of the nation\u2019s toughest schedules in what should be a decisive season for the program.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the matter of Riley\u2019s job security, which could make any available top coordinator queasy.<\/p>\n

Yet as far as the coach is concerned, the path to finding a great coordinator and fielding a great defense isn\u2019t that far off from what USC has now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely don\u2019t want to press reset,\u201d Riley said. \u201cI\u2019m excited about the process, and I think it\u2019s going to make us better, I know it will. So, we\u2019ll wake up tomorrow morning and we\u2019ll get on it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO, Texas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Two years ago, a day after he decided to fire Alex Grinch as USC\u2018s defensive coordinator,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48181,61930,32697,217,11155,61931,61932,48,52,51,32698,47,50,49,1524,1417,278,61933,23138,3533,72],"class_list":["post-116279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alamo-bowl","tag-alex-grinch","tag-danton-lynn","tag-day","tag-defense","tag-defensive-coordinator","tag-great-defense","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lincoln-riley","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-nation","tag-point","tag-season","tag-thin-group","tag-trojans","tag-usc","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}